Join our mailing list!
©2007
StudentAffairs.com
All Rights Reserved
|
Book Review
The Invisible
Computer
written by Donald A. Norman
reviewed by Kyle
Johnson
Manager, Information
Systems,
Duke
University
Norman, D. A. (1999). The invisible computer. MIT
Press: Boston, MA.
The Invisible Computer, by Donald A. Norman,
purports to be a discussion of the "next generation" of
computing devices, namely information appliances, and what
corporate cultural and organizational changes must take
place in order for such devices to become commonplace. In
the preface, Mr. Norman describes in three words, the holy
grail of computing, a device that follows three basic design
principles, "simplicity, versatility, and pleasurability."
While those three words certainly left me with a yearning to
quickly read on, the next 183 pages (i.e. the first eight
chapters) left me wondering if Mr. Norman was ever going to
actually discuss such a device. Not until Chapter Nine was
there even a glimpse of a discussion regarding information
appliances, and while the last few chapters were
interesting, the pleasure was much diminished by the pain of
getting to them.
Summarizing the book would be a difficult task, as the
chapters didn't often thread well together, although Mr.
Norman attempts to draw them together by periodically
repeating, almost word for word, "the way a product is
developed, designed , and marketed has to change radically
as a product moves from its early youth to maturity." The
first chapter deals with Thomas Edison's various failed
forays into the phonograph business, while the second
chapter jumps to a discussion of the current syndrome of
feature bloated software and how technology, marketing, and
user experience affect the design of a product. The next few
chapters meander through examples of pseudo information
appliances, discussions of the problem with current PCs, and
the realization that there is no "silver bullet" that will
fix the problem. The book then jumps to a discussion of
infrastructure and corporate culture, and how human beings
don't fit well in a digital world.
Finally, in Chapters Nine and Ten we get to some
interesting discussion of "human centered development,"
where all facets of an organization, from the engineers to
the quality assurance and technical writers are involved in
the design of the product. In Chapter Twelve, the grand
finale as it were, we are almost treated to some interesting
examples of information appliances. Unfortunately, the book
ends with a whimper, rather than a bang, leaving you to
thumb through the appendices to get a feel for some possible
information appliances.
For those interested in obscure, almost Luddite-like
references to the evils of technology and how marketing is
more important the good technology, I would highly recommend
the first eight chapters. For those of you that aren't
really into that, skip to page 184. You may not understand a
few of the references to earlier chapters, but they aren't
pivotal to the thread of the last chapters, and what you
miss won't be worth the plodding pace of the first eight
chapters.
Printer
Friendly Version
|
